This year, Ink & Clay’s theme simultaneously explores this theme of Art & Science and how the twain may meet. Defined by the primary use, or inclusion, of “ink” or “clay”, or both, in combination, as the media to create artwork, thematic topics and subject matter may range from anything science related, to art and science in combination: projects about climate change and environmental justice, to the future of artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, to alternative medicine, or modern to medieval to ancient, alchemy, the uses of ancestral DNA, stem-cell research, drugs and pharmaceuticals, the experimentation with light, optics, movement/kinetics or technology, medieval astrology and space, science and spirituality or religion, gender/ transgender issues, architects/architecture, engineers/urban planning, scientists, explorers and inventors/inventions, doctors and medicine, reproductive health/abortion, biology, chemistry, anthropology and sociology (any of the “-ologies”) and infinite other scientific topics may be explored. 

The same techniques that are acceptable each year for Ink & Clay are applicable for Ink & Clay 46: all traditional media (painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture), mixed media, collage, assemblage, book-making, installation, video and any avant-garde artforms are acceptable for submission, as long as "ink" and/or "clay" are featured in some way.

Meet the Jurors of Ink and Clay 46

Kim Abeles, Fine Art/Curatorial Juror (Photo credit: Calista Lyon)

Kim Abeles

Kim Abeles’ art crosses disciplines and media to explore biography, geography and environment. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts, California Community Foundation and Pollack-Krasner Foundation. She has created artwork with a unique range of collaborators including California Bureau of Automotive Repair, California Science Center, Department of Mental Health, and natural history museums in California, Colorado and Florida. In 1987, she innovated a method to create images from the smog in the air, and Smog Collectors brought her work to international attention, and were recently exhibited in New York at the United Nations Headquarters. Abeles’ journals and process documents are archived at the Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art.

Her work is in public collections including MOCA, LACMA, CAAM, Berkeley Art Museum, and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. NEA-funded projects involved a residency at the Institute of Forest Genetics; and Valises for Camp Ground with Camp 13, a group of female prison inmates who fight wildfires. Her public art includes Citizen Seeds along the Park to Playa Trail, and Walk a Mile in My Shoes, based on the shoes of Civil Rights marchers and local activists. Abeles most recently guest curated Above & Below: Views from AltaSea’s Blue Hour [Artists] at CPP in partnership with the AltaSea Institute which featured local female artists showcasing work that address the ocean with respect to social and environmental issues. Recent articles about her projects are published in the New York Times, Hyperallergic, and Social Practice: Technologies for Change (Routledge Press).

Barbara A. Thomason, Ink Juror 

Barbara A. Thomason

Born in San Diego, Barbara A. Thomason received her Master’s Degree in printmaking at California State University, Long Beach. After graduation she worked as a master printer in lithography at Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles for artists Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Claus Oldenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Joe Goode and Robert Rauschenberg.

Thomason has had numerous exhibitions: venues include the Pacific Asia Museum, Space Gallery representing her (70s-80s); Los Angeles County Museum of Art; L.A. Municipal Art Gallery; University of Redlands; Laguna Art Museum; Cal Poly Pomona; Oceanside Museum of Art; the Armory Center for the Arts; and LA Artcore and Los Angeles City Hall. Thomason has completed site-specific public art pieces such as the Gates of Los Angeles, etched stainless steel elevator doors, for the State Office Building in Downtown Los Angeles; the Noho Mask Mural in North Hollywood; an interior mural for the Los Angeles Children’s Museum; and banners for the Oceanside Museum and for CSU Summer Arts at Cal State Fresno.

Thomason has taught Painting, Drawing and Printmaking extensively and has participated in several academic projects. She has been on the faculty of Otis College of Art and Design, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Redlands, Ryman Arts at USC, University of Alaska, and taught at Cal Poly Pomona for twenty-two years. She  has coordinated courses for the CSU Summer Arts in both Sculpture and Printmaking and was the gallery director at the University of Redlands Peppers Art Gallery for five years. Prospect Park Books published a book of her paintings and writing, One Hundred Not So Famous Views of L.A. (2014).

Alison Ragguette, Clay Juror 

Alison Ragguette

Working for over twenty years, Alison Ragguette has developed an expansive approach to making sculptural objects in porcelain, glass, and rubber. She has studied at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London (England), received her BFA from Concordia University (Montreal), and MFA from the California College of the Arts (San Francisco). She is currently a Professor of Art and Graduate Coordinator at California State University, San Bernardino.

Ragguette’s work has been included in national and international exhibitions, including her most recent solo exhibitions at Diana Berger Gallery (Walnut), the American Museum of Ceramic Art (Pomona), the International Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago), Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (San Bernardino) and Launch LA (Los Angeles). She has exhibited at venues including Durden and Ray (Los Angeles), the Architecture and Design Museum (Los Angeles), The Contemporary (Austin), and international venues including the Galleria De Los Oficios (Santiago de Cuba), Shanghai University Art Gallery (China), and Harbor Front Center (Toronto). She has also been commissioned for multiple public artworks.

Alison has been a resident artist at the Taller Cultural in Santiago de Cuba, Jingdehzen Pottery Workshop in China, and the Purosil Rubber Company in Corona, California. Her work has been highlighted in several art publications and textbooks, including Ceramics Monthly, LA Art Week and Artillery Magazine. Alison has been supported by grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the Durfee Foundation in Los Angeles. Most recently, she has launched A-Ware Studio where they produce commissioned ceramics for public and private spaces.